The Tune in My Heart
by JessieJay13
Summary: Main plot in Return to the Sea didn't happen. Now 15, and still sneaking out to the sea, Melody is caught by Aiden, a servant boy from the palace. They strike up a friendship, and maybe more, as Melody still needs a date to her birthday ball...
1. Chapter 1

Melody sighed in pleasure as she sunk into the shallow pool of cool, salty water that lapped at the shore beside the castle. She glanced around to make sure she was alone before slipping entirely under the water and swimming into the small half-tunnel below the wall. The first few times she had entered it, she had had the absurd feeling that the wall would collapse around her, but she had long gotten past the temporary claustrophobia. She grasped one of the slimy, algae-covered poles that barred her path and pulled up. It slid out of the hole in the bedrock and she wedged it aside, making a gap just barely large enough for her to wriggle through. Then she slid the bar back into its slot and swam away from the wall, into the open waters of the ocean.

Once she had swum some distance away, she tried to wipe off some of the greenish residue that had rubbed off onto her undershirt, frowning in displeasure; She would have to get this washed, and that might raise some questions as to where she had gotten such a stain "in her room." She hadn't had this problem when she was twelve, but she had been smaller and much more flat-chested then. At fifteen, she was having trouble fitting through the bars. Soon she was going to have to try and loosen another one if she was going to continue this secret swims.

Sighing, Melody dipped her head under the water and ran her fingers through her long black hair, loving the way it fanned out around her. The she pulled it back with a ribbon, the better to keep it out of her eyes. She kicked out a few more times, headed toward a clump of rocks that she knew hid a hidden grotto filled with cool trinkets and abandoned stuff. She had a stash hidden in a drawer in her room that contained many of the things she had pulled from this treasure trove, things that were completely useless to most people, but that kept her fascinated for little to no reason. She often found herself wondering over who it had belonged to, or what significance it may have contained for its owner.

She took a deep breath and dove under the water, blinking through the salty water toward the carpet of glittering knick-knacks on the rock shelves below. She kicked out behind her, driving herself down toward them, eyes intent on a silver brooch on the nearest ledge. She pick it up, pushing up on the water to keep herself from floating to the surface, and turn it over in front of her eyes. It was beautiful, with delicate engravings over its smooth surface and emeralds littered across its surface. Small tendrils of metal twisted gracefully toward the middle to form a detailed rose, in the middle of which was a ruby the size of a pebble that was crusted over with dirt. She rubbed her finger across its surface, trying to wipe away the remnants of years on the sea bottom. She thought she could make out curly writing on its face and began to scrape at it with her fingernail.

Her lungs began to burn for air and she propelled herself toward the surface, brooch clutched in her hand. She broke the surface and gasped for breath, wondering idly how long she had been under. She brought up the brooch, squinting in the bright light, and tried again to scratch the dirt off of it to see the inscription on the ruby, but all she succeeding in revealing was that she had exceedingly weak fingernails. Sighing, she placed it on a nearby rock, hoping that it wouldn't get washed down again, and turned back to the grotto. She took a breath and slid under the surface. She glanced around at the things littering the top few layers and saw nothing of immediate interest. She swam downward toward the lower levels, searching for something worth the little time she had left before she had to return to the castle for lunch. She was about to give up when a flash of gold caught her attention from the very bottom of the grotto. She began to swim toward it when her lungs began to throb again. She returned to the surface to replenish her stores of oxygen. Pushing her hair out of her face, she looked around to make sure that the brooch was still there. Satisfied, she took another deep breath and prepared to dive again.

"Oi!" She whipped around to see a boy standing on the shore beside a cart piled high with food from the marketplace down the road. He was looking at her, hand shading his eyes from the sun. She gasped and dropped below the water. She stayed there for as long as she could, hoping the boy hadn't recognized her and waiting for him to leave. She stayed down long after her lungs began burning and she was feeling lightheaded. Finally, she broke the surface, gasping for breath. She looked toward the shore and saw that the boy was still there, looking anxious.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Princess? Princess Melody?!"

Panicking, Melody swam hurriedly behind the rock with the brooch on it and sunk lower in the water. She heard footsteps coming toward her, boots slapping wetly on the shore. Cursing, she took a breath and dove beneath the surface, swimming as fast as she could toward the tunnel with the bars, trying to reach it in one breath. When she reached it, she chanced a breath and looked back to see the boy standing on the shore beside the small trail of rocks beside the grotto, looking puzzled as to where she had gone and holding the brooch in his hands. Before he could look around for her, she entered the tunnel, moved the bar, and swam through, leaving it out of its hole in her haste. She tried to remain under the shallow water as long as possible, but she soon had to clamber out and run toward the trellis covered in vines that climbed up the side of the castle.

She scaled the trellis easily, not stopping for breath until she had slipped through her open window and stood, wet and cold, on the towels she had laid out ahead of time. Worried that the boy might come looking for her to confirm what he had seen, she stripped out of her wet undergarments, threw them in the laundry hamper and threw some dry clothes on top of them. Then she toweled dry as quickly as she could and put on dry underthings and a simple but elegant green dress. She squeezed the water out of her hair with a towel and threw the towels into the bathroom as well. Running a comb through her damp hair, she scrounged up a green ribbon from some corner of her wardrobe and began braiding it into a section of her hair just as a knock sounded from her door.

"Come in," she called, putting on a façade of innocence. Sure enough, it was the boy. He stepped inside, keeping a hand on the door and looking very uneasy. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, making it stand on end in the back.

"Princess Melody," he said, bowing respectfully. "I, um…If I may, may I ask where you have been for the past few minutes?" he asked, sounding as if he thought she was going to get angry. She smiled at him and he relaxed slightly.

"I was bathing, getting ready to go to lunch," she said, glad for the excuse to explain her wet hair and the towels in her bathroom. The boy didn't look entirely convinced, but he nodded, accepting her lie without question. "Why?"

"Uh, well…Nothing, my Lady," he said, averting his blue-green eyes embarrassedly. He ran his fingers through his hair again, casting around for something to say. "I-I, should probably get back to the kitchens, my Lady. Good day."

"To you as well," she said as he hurriedly back out of her room and shut the door behind him. She turned back to the mirror on her vanity, smiling at how flustered the boy had seemed. She realized that she hadn't gotten his name. She finished braiding the strip of green satin into her hair and tucked the braid behind her ear. As she slipped on the green slippers that matched the dress, she observed that his eyes had been the same color as the sea. Smiling again, she headed down to lunch.

* * *

Melody entered one of the large dining rooms to see her parents already seated at the long mahogany table, her father at the head and her mother to his right. They were both looking at her.

"Melody, you're late," her father said, sounding concerned. "Where were you?"

Melody took her seat quickly on his other side. "I'm sorry I'm late, I was bathing," she said smoothly, sticking to her lie. They expected it, although her mother seemed a little skeptical, and her father snapped his fingers. A line of servants come out of the kitchen, each carrying a platter of food, which they placed on the table in front of them. The food smelled delicious and made Melody's stomach growl; swimming always made her hungry. His father snapped again and a servant ran out of the kitchen to pour them drinks. Her parents had goblets of wine, but Melody was poured a glass of milk. She looked up to smile at the server and saw the boy. She smiled at him, and he smiled back shyly, looking flustered again. She giggled to herself as he practically fled to the kitchen. Her mother looked at her speculatively, and she stopped.

The three of them ate quietly, intent on their individual meals, until her mother looked up at her, smirking slightly.

"So, Melody," her mother said, in that teasing tone that immediately made her daughter nervous. "Your sixteenth birthday is coming up. We're almost done planning your ball. Do you, uh, have a date?" Melody gaped at her mother, horrified that she would ask such a personal question in front of her father, who was looking suddenly very intensely at her.

"_Mom!_" she hissed, and her mother just smiled ingenuously at her. "No, I don't, and I don't think I will!"

"Why not?" her mother asked, sounding surprised.

"Because there are no boys here, duh," Melody said, uncomfortable discussing this subject with her father scrutinizing her. "Who would I possibly have to go with when I hardly ever leave the castle?"

"There are plenty of boys here," her mother said.

"Not really."

"Ariel, it's okay if Melody doesn't want a date for her ball," her father said. "Honey, it is perfectly fine. Wait as long as you like to start dating." Her mother hit him on the arm playfully, saying, "Stop that.

"Are you sure? What about that boy that just pou—"

"No, really, Mom, it's fine, I promise" Melody assured her mother loudly. "I really don't need a date."

"Well, okay. If that's what you want," her mother said, looking disappointed, and rather suspicious about her hasty interruption. Melody's father snapped again and two servants hurried to collect up the plates and take them back to the kitchen. "Go on, Melody. It's time for your lessons." Melody hugged her parents and headed off to her tutor's office, _not_ looking forward to four hours stuck in a stuffy room with a stuffy old man teacher her completely uninteresting stuff. Wonderful.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Melody tapped her pencil on her desk and stared absently out of the window, trying—and succeeding—to block out the obnoxious droning of the elderly man her parents had hired to teach her her lessons. They were on the fifth floor of the palace, high enough to see over the blasted wall to the flat expanse of the sea beyond it. She was hypnotized as a wave began to swell, growing and growing, white foam flying from its crest, until it crashed into the wall, causing the small pool inside of it to swell and lap against the garden it bordered. Then the wave retreated, its white foam slipping back under the blue-green waters.

She shook herself as she noticed that she was once again thinking about the startling similarity between the color of the sea and the servant boy's eyes. _Stop it_, she told herself, _Why do you keep thinking of that?_ She told herself that it was just a longing for the sea, but then why was she thinking of him when she was _looking_ at the sea itself?

"Melody?" She snapped her attention back to Mr. Gil. "Are you paying any attention to me at all?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Gil. I'm just really distracted today for some reason," she said, rubbing a hand over her face. The old man smiled at her kindly.

"Well, you're still going to have to complete your assignment," he said apologetically. "You need to write a sonnet about a subject of your choosing by this time next week. Our time is up for today. Maybe you'll be more focused tomorrow." He patted her fondly on the arm, and she nodded respectfully to him.

Melody exited the classroom and walked slowly back down two floors to her room, not bothering to undress before flopping down on the bed. Even though she had barely gotten fifteen minutes to swim, she was more tired than she usually was. She sighed into one of the numerous pillows on her queen-sized bed. She wished she had that brooch she had found, the one with the hidden inscription on the ruby, but that boy had picked it up when she left it on the rock. She wondered if he kept it, or if he had left it where she had. She would look for it tomorrow. If it wasn't there, there was really nothing she could do to get it back without telling him that it had been she he had seen swimming outside the wall.

She got up and rummaged around in the bottom drawer of her bureau until she pulled out a golden box that she had found on one of her foraging trips in the grotto. It was made of intricately interlocked drawers and hidden segments, and it never ceased to fascinate her. In it, she often kept some of the other, smaller pieces she had salvaged. She found herself speculating, once again, how it had all gotten there? A shipwreck? A broken treasure chest from a pirate? Maybe it was all just riffraff from all across the ocean that had just happened to settle there over time, although that one seemed less likely.

She sat back on her bed, the box in her lap, and began to take it apart, removing piece after piece until she had a row of smaller boxes and drawers laid out on her bed, each with another one of her treasures in it. She knew exactly how to put it back together again, and took great pleasure in doing so. She went to the smallest drawer and took out a delicate golden ring. It was plain and simple, except for a small diamond in the center, set into a circle of tiny golden vines. It was one of her favorite things. Too bad she couldn't show it to anyone. If she did, they would ask where she had gotten it, and she would have to make up another lie. She didn't like lying, no matter how good at it she was. She put the ring back in its little compartment.

Melody jumped as someone knocked on the door. Cursing under her breath, she struggled to put the box back together as quickly as possible. Whoever it was knocked again. "Just a minute!" she called, panicking. Slipping the top onto the reassembled box, she tossed it unceremoniously into the drawer and kicked it closed. She hurried to the door, smoothing her hair into place and fixing a welcoming expression on her face. It was the boy. Again!

"Yes?" she asked politely.

"I-I'm sorry to bother you, again, Princess Melody," he said. "I had just had to tell you that I-I could've sworn I saw you swimming outside of the wall today." He waited for her to respond, looking borderline scared. "But it could've been someone else!" he inserted quickly when she opened her mouth to respond. "She just, well, looked a lot like you."

"I'm sorry, Mr. …?" she trailed off, looking at him curiously.

"Oh! Uh, my name is Aiden, ma'am," he told her.

"Aiden," she said. "I think you have me confused with someone else. Or rather, that you have someone else confused with me. I have never been outside of the castle wall except for special occasions, and I have definitely never been in the sea."

Aiden nodded, looking angry with himself. "Thank you, Princess, for your time. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." Then he hurried off before she could say anything in return.

"No problem," she said to the empty hallway. "No problem at all."

Aiden slowed when he was a floor down from the Princess's room. He looked back the way he had come, feeling incredibly stupid. _Way to go, Aiden,_ he thought sarcastically, _That's exactly how you should act around a princess! Didn't your mother always warn you not to act stupid? Jeez!_ He continued down another two floors, head down and hands deep in his pockets, then out onto the grounds toward the servants' quarters on the other side of the castle.

They were several low, one-story, wooden buildings, each with a candle in the window of the front room. He wove between them until he found the one he shared with his mother and 10-year-old sister, Alana. He entered to the smell of hot soup and freshly baked bread, and the sound of Alana laughing in the kitchen. He smiled in spite of his foul mood; home always made him happier. Despite the fact that he was a lowly kitchen boy to a wealthy family, his life was very good.

"I'm home, Mom," he called. His mother, a plump little woman with a caring, yet stern, demeanor came bustling into the room.

"Just in time for dinner, dear," she said. "Come, sit down. You look tired. Long day?" she asked sympathetically as he followed her through to the small kitchen. It contained only a stove, a few cabinets, a worktable, and a dining table set in the middle, which currently held an array of humble and mouthwatering dishes. Aiden took off his coat and hung it on the back of one of the three chairs around the table and sighed.

"Yeah, sort of." He sat down heavily, pushing his dark hair out of his eyes. When he didn't elaborate, his mother began ladling stew onto his plate. "So, what did you do today, Alana?" he asked. She looked up at him with her big blue eyes and smiled happily.

"I had another lesson with one of the maids about how to sew clothes," she said brightly. It made him smile again; she was always so enthusiastic about everything. "It was so cool! She showed me how to cut the fabric to the right shape, and how to measure a person so that their clothes fit right when they put them on, and how to fix them if they rip. I think I want to be a tailor when I grow up! What about you, what did you do today?" She said all of this very quickly. The question caught him off guard, and it took him a moment to formulate his answer.

"It was fairly normal," he said, focusing on his plate. He wasn't sure why, but he was very reluctant to share the details of his day. "I poured the drinks for their breakfast. I went to the market afterward. I—" He hesitate. He wanted to show them the brooch, but it was so valuable that they would probably want to sell it, and he felt a strange attachment to the trinket. "I, uh, poured the drinks for lunch. That's my job, I do it everyday." He shrugged, trying to cover up his unease. His family seemed to take him at his word, though, and he soon relaxed as the conversation progressed to random castle gossip.

By the end of dinner he was in good humor again. When the sun had gone down, he kissed his mother on the cheek, patted his little sister on the head, and headed to his room. He used to share it with his sister, but when he turned twelve, she moved into their mother's room to give him his privacy as man of the house. It consisted of a bed in one corner with a small table next to it, a desk in another, a small chest of drawers, and a window. He pulled off his boots and put them, toe first, under the bed. He changed out of his uniform and into his blue cotton pajamas and laid in bed, holding the brooch carefully in his hands.

It was silver and delicate, covered with precious stones. There was an intricate rose wrapped around a large ruby in the center. It was by far the most expensive thing he had ever held. It was covered by a light film of dirt, and had presumably been underwater for some time. He wondered again if it was really Princess Melody he had seen fish it out of the sea. He ran his fingers over the details of the rose, the metal cold under his fingers. He squinted at the ruby in the light of the candle on his bedside table and thought he could detect something on its surface. He sat up and began to scratch at the dirt that crusted its glistening surface.

In the time before his candle flickered out, he managed to uncover two words written in a curling, elegant script: "To my." He sighed and put the brooch in the drawer of his bedside table, then crawled under the blanket and stared up at his ceiling until he fell asleep, still thinking about his day.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Melody slipped out of her yellow silk gown and laid it out on the bed for her to put on again when she returned. She laid out towels on the floor and then climbed out of the window in her underclothes. She crawled down the trellis and snuck toward the edge of the water, looking anxiously over her shoulder every few steps. She sunk in and swam quietly to the tunnel. She slipped through the hole between the bars, one of which she had left out of place from the day before, and then struck out for the cove.

When she reached the line of rocks, she was disappointed to see that the brooch was no longer on the largest rock. She swam around it a few times to check and make sure that it hadn't just fallen off, but that that boy, Aiden, had really taken it. She surfaced and sighed; she had really wanted that brooch for her collection. She thought about going to find Aiden and asking for it back, but that would obviously reveal that it had actually been she he had seen, so she threw the idea out. She would just have to live without it.

She dove down into the cove again and peered down toward the grotto floor, looking for the glint of gold she had seen the day before, but the tide had covered up whatever she had seen, and she knew she wouldn't have enough oxygen to go searching for it for long. She turned her attention, instead, to a large shiny goblet on one of the upper shelves that glistened where the sun struck it through the clear water. She brought it up to the surface and examined it in the bright midmorning light, wiping the smooth surface clean. Once she was satisfied with its sheen, she balanced it upon the rock and dove back beneath the water for more treasures.

She picked up another shiny bauble, scrutinized it and turned to resurface. She nearly gulped in a mouthful of water when she saw the boy, Aiden, standing on the rock directly above her. She fought to keep herself underwater and watched him as he picked up the goblet she had just salvaged. He turned it over in his hands, frowning slightly. He shaded his eyes and looked out in all directions. Melody's lungs were aching with the familiar burn that told her to breathe, so she swam around behind him, to the other side of the rock, and surfaced, trying to gasp quietly.

Aiden whirled around at her breath, and promptly fell off the rock with a yelp of surprise. He floundered around in the water, and the thought struck Melody that he might not know how to swim. Her assumption was confirmed when he sank below the water, still struggling futilely. Throwing her new treasure up on one of the other nearby rocks, she dove beneath the water. Aiden was sinking fast, due to his heavy work clothes, and she had to strike out hard to reach him. She grabbed him around the chest from behind and kicked frantically for the surface.

When they broke the surface again, she hauled him to the shoreline a hundred yards away. He didn't seem to be breathing. She pushed on his chest a few times and was just about to give him mouth to mouth when he coughed violently, a fountain of seawater spewing out of his mouth. He sat up and wiped his mouth on the back of his wet sleeve, trying unsuccessfully to still his coughing fit. Melody waited for them to subside, watching him worriedly; it was, after all, her fault that he had been out there.

When he was finally able to catch his breath, Aiden looked at her incredulously and said, "So it _was_ you!"

"Yeah," she sighed.

"Do you come—" Aiden began, but he began to cough again and Melody leaned forward worriedly. "Do you come out here every day?" he finished hoarsely.

"Almost. Whenever I can get away," she admitted. "Usually in midmorning, between breakfast and lunch. I don't have anything _else _to fill the time. Are you okay?" she added when he began coughing again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he said, his voice gravelly, waving his hand dismissively at her. He ran his fingers through his hair, squeezing a drizzle of water down the back of his neck and making him shiver. He was freezing, despite his layers and the fact that it was mid-May. He shivered again and said through chattering teeth, "How can you stand being out here dressed like this when the water is this cold?"

"I guess I've just gotten used to it," she said, shrugging. "I've been out here in November before. I don't even notice the temperature anymore." She frowned as another shudder wracked him. "We need to get you inside. Come on." She stood up and seized him by the arm, pulling him to his feet with surprising strength for someone of her size. "Do you think that you could hold your breath long enough for me to pull you under the wall? You only have to kick your feet."

His eyes widened slightly in fear. "I, uh…Yeah, I-I think I can do that," he said, hoping to convince himself. Melody smiled slightly and took him by the hand, pulling him along the shoreline so quickly that Aiden had to jog to keep up. They skirted the small inlet and ended up back at the wall, a few yards from the tunnel with the loose bars.

"You stay here for a second so I can make sure you can get through," she told him. He nodded. Melody waded into the water again and slipped under, swimming swiftly toward the bars. One of them was still pushed to the side. She pushed it even farther and swam through it once, then back again, making sure that Aiden would be able to fit through the opening. Then she resurfaced and beckoned to the shivering boy.

"Get in," she said. He hesitated at the waters edge. "The water is shallow here, and you're taller than me so you may be able to touch the ground over here. You'll only be under for a few seconds. I promise I won't let you drown," she assured him, only a little bit patronizingly. He looked at her for a moment, then decided to trust her and stepped into the water. He waded toward her, grimacing at the chill of the water, until he was in up to his chest. Melody gestured to him and he followed her along the wall until he felt it disappear from under his fingers.

Melody took a deep breath and slid under the water. Aiden warred against his fear of drowning for just a moment before he filled his lungs to the bursting point and forced himself under the water. It was terrifying! She took his hand, though, and pulled him behind her. He could see a large semi-circle opening at the base of the wall with bars set into the soil. One of the bars was pulled out of its hole and wedged out of the way. He worried that he wouldn't be able to fit through the small opening, but Melody pulled him through it without too much trouble. On the other side, she pulled him to the surface slowly.

She shushed him hurriedly and pulled him back into the water when he tried to stand, looking around frantically to make sure no one was outside of the castle. She tugged him by the sleeve through the shallow water, practically sliding on their stomachs, until they were within sight of the vine-covered trellis that ran up the side of the castle. Checking their surroundings once more, Melody stood and hurried toward it, beginning to climb it without so much as a glance downward. Aiden, however, balked. When she saw him still on the ground, she sighed.

"Oh, come on, don't tell me you're afraid of heights, too?" she whispered exasperatedly. Aiden scowled at her.

"No, I am _not_ afraid of heights!" he shot back, stung. "I'm just a smidge surprised to see the Princess climbing up a trellis in her underwear." It was only half a lie; he was indeed a little bit shocked at the present situation, but he still wasn't keen on climbing three stories up a castle wall and into a princess's bedroom. He quashed these feelings, however, dragged himself onto the trellis, and began pulling himself upward. He was determined not to look down, but, of course, he did so anyway. He gulped as he saw the ground falling away. He shook himself and continued after the apparently fearless princess.

Aiden clambered through the window behind her, falling not-so-gracefully onto one of the towels that covered the floor beneath it. He glared at Melody when he heard her giggling at him. He scrambled to his feet.

"You wait here for a minute. I have to change into dry clothes," Melody said awkwardly. "I'll be back in a minute. Then we can try and find you something dry to wear." She grabbed a pile of fabric off of her bed and hurried into the adjoining bathroom, leaving him alone in her room. At a loss for what he was supposed to do, Aiden examined his surroundings.

It was a spacious, rectangular room. The walls and ceiling were painted a soft, pale pink and the floor was completely covered in a lush burgundy carpet that was so thick, he thought it would probably he more comfortable to sleep on than his mattress at home. He was tempted to test this theory, but was reminded that his clothes were sopping wet and quickly soaking through the fluffy towel he was standing on. He stepped forward onto the next one, trying to keep from getting the carpet too wet.

The bed he was standing beside was tucked into the corner beside the window, and was surely much larger than the petite 15-year-old girl needed, he thought. It was nearly five feet wide and seven feet long. It was nearly the height of his waist, with a thick, pink downy comforter that draped over the side almost to the floor. It was piled high with large, reddish-purple pillows that matched the carpeting. There was even a fine mesh canopy attached to the ceiling that flowed down around the bed, currently tied back to the ornately carved bedposts.

Just past the extravagant bed was a large bureau of the same dark glossy wood as the bedposts. It was a good deal taller than he was, more than twice as wide, and would've held Aiden's entire wardrobe four or five times over. It had two heavy doors, each with fine engravings and patterns etched in its surface and a gracefully sculpted brass handle on the center edge, and three large drawers beneath it with similar decorations. On either side there was a row of much smaller doors and drawers that he assumed held jewelry and tiaras and such.

Aiden turned to see an elaborate and delicate vanity set, complete with a huge oval mirror surrounded by a fragile-looking gilt frame. It sat upon a desk of the same wood as the bureau that was covered with bottles and boxes and things that he couldn't identify but assumed were makeup of some sort. It had several drawers as well, but he didn't bother to guess what girly necessities they might contain. There was a line of differently-colored shoes lined up on a shelf underneath them.

On the other side of the vanity set was a bookcase as tall as the ceiling. It was covered in a surprisingly large collection of weathered, beat-up books. Spying a few that he had read as well, Aiden itched to go check them out but was once again conscious of dripping onto the carpet. Instead, he sighed and looked upward to examine the ornate chandelier. It was several feet wide, made of silver, with over twenty tall white candles shedding flickering light over the room.

Aiden was about to move on to the third towel when Melody emerged from the bathroom, now dressed in an elegant purple gown, her slightly damp hair flowing around her shoulders. He found himself shuffling his feet and averting his eyes; she looked suddenly much more like a princess, even as barefooted and awkward as she was at the moment.

"Oh, Aiden, you look freezing," she said, looking at him pityingly. "Go on and take that heavy coat off, it's keeping you from drying off." Aiden stripped off his jacket and placed it in her outstretched hands. She went to hang it up in the bathroom and brought back another stack of fluffy towels. She wrapped one around his shoulders and laid another on the chair in front of her vanity so that he could sit. He did so without comment, wondering exactly how he was supposed to react to this scenario; it was not one that he had ever planned to encounter. She sat down on the edge of her bed, looking every bit as awkward as he felt.

"So, uh…" Melody began, looking at her hands, which were clasped in her lap. "As you probably know, I, as the Princess, am not allowed by my parents to go anywhere near the ocean; it's 'too dangerous.' However, I have been breaking that rule for several years. Now that you know that, I need you to promise not to tell anyone." She looked up and caught his eye earnestly. "Please."

Aiden thought about it for a moment. There must have been some reason for that rule to be set in place, some stimulus that convinced the King and Queen that the ocean was too dangerous a place for their daughter. But, then, Melody said she had been swimming in the ocean for years without ever having been hurt in any way. So, was there any reason to tell anyone? Seeing the pleading look on her face made up his mind for him, and he nodded. She beamed at him.

"Thank you, Aiden, thank you!" she squealed. "You don't know how much that means to me!" He smiled at her, trying to suppress another shiver. "Oh, I'm sorry, you're still wet. Um…I don't know if I have anything that you could wear, unless you want to walk out of her wearing a dress…" she said apologetically.

"That's all right, Princess," Aiden insisted. "I'll just head home and change when I get there." He stood and removed the towel from his shoulders. He laid it on the floor in front of him, angling it toward the door, and placed the one he had been sitting on ahead of it so that he could reach the door without soiling the carpet with his wet boots.

"But what will you tell your parents got you all wet?" she asked.

"The truth," he said. "I fell in the bay. Have a good night, Princess."

"You, too, Aiden," she returned, giving him a sweet smile. "Sorry I almost got you drowned."

"No problem. No problem at all."


End file.
